Context: One in 4 men in the US aged >50 will suffer an osteoporosis-related fracture. Less data are available on osteoporosis treatment in men than women. Objective: Evaluate denosumab therapy in men ... [more ▼]

Context: One in 4 men in the US aged >50 will suffer an osteoporosis-related fracture. Less data are available on osteoporosis treatment in men than women. Objective: Evaluate denosumab therapy in men with low BMD. Design: Phase 3 study with two treatment periods: a previously reported 12-month double-blind, placebo-controlled phase and a 12-month open-label phase. Setting: Multicenter in North America and Europe. Participants: 228 men entered the open-label phase and 219 completed the study. Intervention: Men from the original denosumab (long-term) and placebo (crossover) groups received denosumab 60 mg SC every 6 months. Main Outcome Measures: BMD, serum C-telopeptide (sCTX), and safety. Results: During the open-label phase, continued BMD increases occurred with long-term denosumab treatment (2.2% lumbar spine; 0.9% total hip; 1.3% femoral neck; 1.3% trochanter; and 0.2% 1/3 radius), resulting in cumulative 24-month gains from baseline of 8.0%, 3.4%, 3.4%, 4.6%, and 0.7%, respectively (all P<0.01). The crossover group showed BMD gains after 12 months of denosumab treatment similar to the long-term denosumab group during the first treatment year. Significant reductions in sCTX were observed following denosumab administration. Adverse events rates were similar between groups and no new safety signals identified. Conclusions: In men with low BMD, denosumab treatment for a second year continued to increase BMD, maintained reductions in bone resorption, and was well tolerated. BMD increased in men initiating denosumab during the second year. These effects were similar to those previously seen in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and men with prostate cancer on androgen deprivation therapy. [less ▲]

Although farm tourism is an appealing idea combining agriculture and tourism, the chance to succeed in both activities is low. The Farm tourism experiments are supplied, imagined and experimented in ... [more ▼]

Although farm tourism is an appealing idea combining agriculture and tourism, the chance to succeed in both activities is low. The Farm tourism experiments are supplied, imagined and experimented in different ways. Consequently definitions, practices and perceptions of agritourism or farm tourism differ as well. Using Gunn’s image typology the paper analyses induced, organic and modified by experience images of argitourism. The study combines data issued from a survey amongst tourists (n = 230), 26 tourism farm holders’ life stories and 31 interviews with experts conducted both in Wallonia and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It scrutinizes the promotional discourses, the life experience and the strategy of farm tourism holders, the expectations of tourists who have experimented farm tourism or not, who claim living in the countryside or not. The level of expectations regarding reception, authenticity, convenience, and active participation in farm works differ noticeably and are now and then inconsistent with the supply and the farm activity. [less ▲]

Since the early 2000s, Ethiopia has witnessed the rapid growth of a local digital film industry whose economic model is similar to the one adopted by other industries of this kind emerged in African ... [more ▼]

Since the early 2000s, Ethiopia has witnessed the rapid growth of a local digital film industry whose economic model is similar to the one adopted by other industries of this kind emerged in African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania. Films are shot in digital format, are independently funded and commercially-driven, use Amharic as main language and target local and diasporic audiences. Unlike other productions of this kind around the continent, however, Ethiopian video films are firstly released in the large cinema theatres that characterize Addis Ababa’s urban landscape, and later circulate via VCDs, in Ethiopia, and in internet, throughout the diaspora. As this essay will argue, this aspect gives to the Ethiopian video film phenomenon a number of important specificities which make the study of Ethiopian film production and distribution particularly interesting. Furthermore, within a context defined by a relatively tight governmental control on media production and circulation, the emergence of this phenomenon is introducing important transformations, and modifying the way locally-produced media are perceived and consumed within the Ethiopian public sphere. While being commercially oriented, in fact, videos do produce a social and moral commentary which portrays, and in some cases criticizes, the way the society has transformed over the past few years. This article presents the preliminary results of an ongoing research on the raising Ethiopian digital film industry, conducted as part of a post-doctoral research project which analyses and compares the economy of digital filmmaking in a few sub-Saharan African countries. The data presented here have been collected through interviews, archival research and participant observation on film sets and distribution venues during a three months research stay in Addis Ababa between the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014. The paper is divided into four main sections: the first two trace the history of filmmaking in Ethiopia and the emergence of the video phenomenon within this context, the third focuses on the analysis of the video industry’s economy and describes its main specificities, and the fourth presents an overview of the main narrative and aesthetic trends emerged within the context of the Ethiopian film production until today. [less ▲]

The video industry in Nigeria has developed within a widely informal economic environment in which the illicit reproduction and circulation of goods were the rule rather than the exception. The ... [more ▼]

The video industry in Nigeria has developed within a widely informal economic environment in which the illicit reproduction and circulation of goods were the rule rather than the exception. The informality of circulation has played a particularly influential role in both the history of the video industry and the genesis of the present crisis. While, on the one hand, it has made videos available all over the African continent and within the diaspora, creating the basis for Nollywood’s international success, it has, on the other hand, weakened the industry’s economy, exposing it to consecutive cycles of saturation and collapse. For this reason, the production crisis that emerged over the past few years has catalyzed numerous controversies concerning the structure of the video economy and the rules that regulate it. The informality on which the video economy has been based since its inception is today often considered a threat to the survival of the industry itself. While the industry has achieved global recognition, the economic fragility of its success has provoked growing anxiety. This anxiety has been progressively concentrated, by both media and video entrepreneurs, on issues of piracy and copyright protection. The aim of this chapter is to investigate the causes of this anxiety and the role that piracy and transformations in copyright legislation have had in catalysing it, while shaping the economy of the industry. Throughout this chapter I will argue that when the uncontrolled circulation of goods begins to undermine the economic basis of the industry that produces them, the rhetoric of piracy is mobilized to ensure the accessibility to the economy of both the production and the distribution of the goods themselves. This allows some of the entrepreneurs involved in the production process to gain exclusive control over it and the capital it generates. Within the Nigerian context, the rhetorical construction of piracy and the legal and economic consequences of this construction are the result of specific conflicts among different segments of the Nigerian video industry and, more precisely, different models of economic entrepreneurship. As the history of the Nigerian video phenomenon shows, a loose copyright regime seems to have positive consequences for the emergence and early development of a creative industry, although, once the industry seeks to attain higher levels of profitability, it tends to become problematic, and the rhetoric of piracy can become a tool to orient processes of restructuration of the cultural industry’s economy. In relation to this dynamic, I analyse the way in which the normative orders that regulate the reproduction and circulation of images and contents developed within the Nigerian context, and I discuss how their introduction and implementation progressively shaped people’s perception of legal and illegal practices in the field of local cultural production. [less ▲]

Osteoarthritis is a syndrome affecting a variety of patient profiles. A European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis and the European Union Geriatric Medicine ... [more ▼]

Osteoarthritis is a syndrome affecting a variety of patient profiles. A European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis and the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society working meeting explored the possibility of identifying different patient profiles in osteoarthritis. The risk factors for the development of osteoarthritis include systemic factors (e.g., age, sex, obesity, genetics, race, and bone density) and local biomechanical factors (e.g., obesity, sport, joint injury, and muscle weakness); most also predict disease progression, particularly joint injury, malalignment, and synovitis/effusion. The characterization of patient profiles should help to better orientate research, facilitate trial design, and define which patients are the most likely to benefit from treatment. There are a number of profile candidates. Generalized, polyarticular osteoarthritis and local, monoarticular osteoarthritis appear to be two different profiles; the former is a feature of osteoarthritis comorbid with inflammation or the metabolic syndrome, while the latter is more typical of post-trauma osteoarthritis, especially in cases with severe malalignment. Other biomechanical factors may also define profiles, such as joint malalignment, loss of meniscal function, and ligament injury. Early- and late-stage osteoarthritis appear as separate profiles, notably in terms of treatment response. Finally, there is evidence that there are two separate profiles related to lesions in the subchondral bone, which may determine benefit from bone-active treatments. Decisions on appropriate therapy should be made considering clinical presentation, underlying pathophysiology, and stage of disease. Identification of patient profiles may lead to more personalized healthcare, with more targeted treatment for osteoarthritis. [less ▲]